Practical advice for staying at home

Think about your diet. Your appetite might change if your routine changes, or if you're less active than you usually are. Eating regularly and keeping your blood sugar stable can help your mood and energy levels. See our tips on food and mood for more information.

Drink water regularly. Drinking enough water is important for your mental and physical health. Changing your routine might affect when you drink or what fluids you drink. It could help to set an alarm or use an app to remind you. See the NHS website for more information about water, drinks and your health.

If you are self-isolating, you can ask someone to drop off essential food items for you. If they do this, ask them to leave food at your doorstep, to avoid face-to-face contact with each other.

You may find that supermarkets and online delivery services feel busier than usual at the moment. If you're feeling anxious about going to the supermarket or arranging an online delivery, it might help to try some of our self-care tips for anxiety, such as breathing exercises.

You might be able to order repeat prescriptions by phone. Or you may be able to do this online using an app or website, if your doctor's surgery offers this. You could download the free NHS App and search for your surgery, although some surgeries aren't on the app yet.

Ask your pharmacy about getting your medication delivered, or ask someone else to collect it for you. This will usually be possible, although if it's a controlled drug the pharmacy might ask for proof of identity. Make sure anyone collecting medication knows if they have to pay for it. The NHS website has more information about getting prescriptions for someone else and checking if you have to pay for prescriptions.

If you are spending a lot of time at home, you may find it helpful to keep things clean and tidy, although this is different for different people.

If you live with other people, keeping things tidy might feel more important if you're all at home together. But you might have different ideas about what counts as 'tidy' or how much it matters. It could help to decide together how you'll use different spaces. And you could discuss what each person needs to feel comfortable.

Your energy costs will probably rise if you're at home more than you usually would be. Think about how you can manage your energy use, or how to cover any higher bills. You could also ask your energy provider about any support they offer, for example if you can sign up to their priority services register. If you're worried about money, our page of useful contacts for money has details of organisations who may be able to help.

If you use care services

Make it clear that any support is still needed. Tell them that alternative arrangements are required if any of the usual support can't continue. This may include things like carers visiting, day centre sessions, or friends and family coming over to help.

Your Local Authority should have policies for this situation and should tell you how they can meet your needs.

If you receive direct payments

If you receive direct payments, these should continue during coronavirus.

You may need to plan for any times or circumstances when you can't use your payments in the normal way. For example, if your usual personal assistant has coronavirus symptoms and can't visit you.

If you can't use your direct payments in the usual way, or if you have new care needs, you should let your local authority know. They should have policies for this situation and should tell you how they can meet your needs.

NHS England and the Welsh government are contacting people who they have identified as being at higher risk of severe illness from coronavirus. This is because of certain pre-existing physical health conditions.

If this affects you or someone you know, there is specific guidance that you should follow, and extra support available to help you:

Keep in touch digitally

Make plans to video chat with people or groups you'd normally see in person.

You can also arrange phone calls or send instant messages or texts.

If you're worried that you might run out of stuff to talk about, make a plan with someone to watch a show or read a book separately so that you can discuss it when you contact each other.

Think of other ways to keep in contact with people while meeting in person is not possible. For example, you could check your phone numbers are up to date, or that you have current email addresses for friends you've not seen for a while.

Connect with others in similar situations

Speak with someone you trust. If you are feeling anxious about coronavirus or staying at home more than usual, you may find it helpful to talk about these worries with someone you trust, especially if they are in a similar situation.

You could join a peer support community. Mind runs an online peer support community called Elefriends, where you can share your experiences and hear from others.

If you're going online more than usual or seeking peer support on the internet, it's important to look after your online wellbeing. See our pages about online mental health for more information.

If you're worried about loneliness

Think about things you can do to connect with people. For example, putting extra pictures up of the people you care about might be a nice reminder of the people in your life.

Listen to a chatty radio station or podcast if your home feels too quiet.

Plan how you'll spend your time. It might help to write this down on paper and put it on the wall.

Try to follow your ordinary routine as much as possible. Get up at the same time as normal, follow your usual morning routines, and go to bed at your usual time. Set alarms to remind you of your new schedule if that helps.

If you aren't happy with your usual routine, this might be a chance to do things differently. For example, you could go to bed earlier, spend more time cooking or do other things you don't usually have time for.

Think about how you'll spend time by yourself at home. For example, plan activities to do on different days or habits you want to start or keep up.

If you live with other people, it may help to do the following:

Agree on a household routine. Try to give everyone you live with a say in this agreement.

Try to respect each other's privacy and give each other space. For example, some people might want to discuss everything they're doing while others won't.

Build physical activity into your daily routine, if possible. Most of us don't have exercise equipment like treadmills where we live, but there are still activities you can do. Exercising at home can be simple and there are options for most ages and abilities, such as:

Bringing nature into your everyday life can benefit both your mental and physical wellbeing. It can improve your mood, reduce feelings of stress or anger, and make you feel more relaxed.

It is possible to get the positive effects of nature while staying indoors at home. You could try the following:

Spend time with the windows open to let in fresh air.

Arrange a comfortable space to sit, for example by a window where you can look out over a view of trees or the sky, or watch birds and other animals.

Look at photos of your favourite places in nature. Use them as the background on your mobile phone or computer screen, or print and put them up on your walls.

Listen to natural sounds, like recordings or apps that play birdsong, ocean waves or rainfall. Get as much natural light as you can. Spend time in your garden if you have one, or open your front or back door and sit on the doorstep.

If you have safe access to green space like a garden, you could bring some natural materials in to decorate your living space, or use them in art projects. This could include leaves, flowers, feathers, tree bark or seeds.

You may be able to buy seeds, flowers or plants online for delivery, to grow and keep indoors. If you order items for delivery, ask to have them left at your doorstep, to avoid face-to-face contact.

If news stories make you feel anxious or confused, think about switching off or limiting what you look at for a while.

Social media could help you stay in touch with people, but might also make you feel anxious including if people are sharing news stories or posting about their worries. Consider taking a break or limiting how you use social media. You might decide to view particular groups or pages but not scroll through timelines or newsfeeds.

Checklist for staying at home

Food: do you have a way to get food delivered if you need to self-isolate?

Cleaning: do you have cleaning supplies?

Work: can you carry on working, including working from home? If not, can you find out your rights to payment or benefits?

Medication: do you have enough medication, or a way to get more?

Health: can you reorganise any planned therapy or treatments?

Connectivity: have you got ways to keep in contact with people you see regularly, like their phone numbers, email addresses? Do you need help setting up digital communication, like a video calling app?

Routine: can you create a routine or timetable for yourself? And if you live with other people, should you create a household schedule? Do you need to agree how the household will run with everyone at home all day?

Exercise: is there any physical activity you can do inside your home, like going up and down the stairs, using bean tins as weights, or exercises you can do in your chair?

Nature: have you thought about how you can bring nature into your home? Can you get some seeds and planting equipment delivered, or put up photos of green spaces?

Entertainment: have you thought about things to do, books to read or TV shows to watch?

Relax: have you got materials so you can do something creative, such as pencils and paper?